Teagan relaxed as the young woman acknowledged her with a quick wink and almost immediately started circling her as if assessing her pray. Teagan allowed the scrutiny. She frowned slightly, though, at the woman's almost nonchalant accounting of her kidnapping and the resulting deafness. She didn't like how young people got so jaded so quickly nowadays. Maybe it was the world they lived in. For herself she always tried to keep even a fraction of whimsy. She found out it helped her counterbalance the heavy burdens. Rather than rely on sarcasm and snark.  But different people responded to the world in a multitude of ways. And everyone was free to find what worked for them.

	When ray of sunshine, or rather Alex, stopped in front of her and quickly dispensed with Teagan's mock protocol introductions, the smokejumper couldn't help but grin, flashing her dimples. She was about to say something when two fingers sealed her lips. Teagan froze cough off guard. Her eyes locked on the fingers, than flickered to Alex's eyes. Oh, she could see the devilish glint in them. And, damn, if she wasn't tempted to do something outrages, but however beautiful the young woman was, she still looked twice Teagan's junior and she just didn't do that. But, hey, nothing wrong in making new friends. And she kinda liked Alex. She appeared quite the proper young lady on the outside. But Teagan sensed something underneath. Something interesting. [i]This'll be fun.[/i] She thought.

	When her lips were free to form words again, she smiled and assure. "Nothing to reopen. Just a scrape. But I appreciate your concern." Alex's eyes jumped for a second towards where Teagan'd left Stark Crusader. Her own eyes followed and she chuckled when she saw the female looking Epic who'd spoken with Dragon Heart waving at the disheveled young man from outside the second-floor window.

	She returned her gaze to Alex when the young woman fired a salvo of questions at her. She grinned. [i]Oh, that one's a little devil, no doubt![/i] "Well..." Teagan started to answer. "Since I was born before the Starburst, I think I have a different perspective. True, I was only a wee girl before the Epics and the Freaks and the mutated animals, but still..."

	Teagan ran a finger over the scar bisecting her lower lip as was her habit when she was thinking something over. "I knew the world before and after in a way." She paused again, considering which question to approach first. "I've spent the better portion of my adult life jumpin' in forest fires and let me tell ye. No villainous Epics were necessary to destroy what nature had created for us. Just someone's carelessness." Teagan felt herself slipping into her Smokey Bear spiel and made a conscious effort to stop. "Epics, Freaks, Normals... We're all just people. We're fickle creatures. So if two Epics decide to duke it out in the middle of Epic City, or if a careless person started a forest fire, there's not much of a deference, is there? We are what we are, and it's up to us to change if we so desire or continue down the same path if we like where it leads to."

	Teagan grabbed a glass of water from a passing waiter. Sipped and continued. "My job doesn't change much. There'll always be people in need of help. And I like helping people. So if I can, I'll try to help." Teagan favored Alex with a soft smirk, her dimples barely visible. "Do I wish for powers, ye ask? I mean what kid hasn't whish for that at some point in their life. I s'ppose I was no different. I remember wishin' I was able to pop buck naked in me parent's bedroom at night." Teagan laughed at her own childish antics. "But than again I didn't really need special power for that. I just had to strip down and burst in their bedroom while they slept." Teagan allowed her eyes to stray from her conversation companion to encompass the crowd of people. "I'm afraid ye'll find no polarizin' opinions in me, Alex. We are all here on this Earth. Epics, Freaks, Normals, animals, plants together. We live as best we can and then we return to whence we came from. I could share my philosophical and spiritual views with ye, but I fear I'll bore ye even more and I'd rather not." Teagan winked at her.
[@Old Amsterdam]